CategoryConsumer Advocacy Archives - Knope Clinic

Many of you have read the recent study by Johns Hopkins researchers that showed medical errors are now the third leading cause of death in America. Deaths from medical mistakes – some 251,000 people per year – are outnumbered only by deaths from heart disease and cancer. Medical mistakes have become a national epidemic.

Reasons for medical errors:I am going to explore some of the factors that have led to so many medical errors. … Read the rest

It has been a pleasure writing The Pearl for you over the past several years. I have very much enjoyed your feedback on my newsletters. Because the response has been so positive, I have taken several hours every month to write these articles. However, due to some challenging new developments in the Tucson medical community, I will no longer have the time to write The Pearl. So this will be my last newsletter. In some of my newsletters, I have warned you about the coming crisis in medicine as a result of the sweeping changes of ObamaCare.… Read the rest

The Most Important Human Behavior

Thanks to all of you who responded with your thoughtful opinions on the most important human behavior. Here are some of the answers you submitted: “Moderation; courage; self-confidence; self-reliance; and communication.” These are certainly useful qualities for success. However, these are not fundamental behaviors. I was looking for an action – a simple behavior – which is critical to survival. This behavior is necessary not only for our psychological survival, but for our literal survival and the survival of our nation.… Read the rest

Of all of the newsletters I’ve written over the past several years, the one that received the most positive responses was titled, The Most Important Word.

For those of you who have not read this piece, I argued that the most important word in the English language is not “love.” It is not “compassion,” “generosity” or “peace.” It is not “compromise.” If you look through the prism of survival, both as individuals and as a society, the most important word in the English language is the word “no.” If you have difficulty saying “no” to other people, by definition, you lack the healthy boundaries necessary to thrive in a competitive and dangerous world.… Read the rest

For those of you who have not been following the story, the VA medical system has come under attack over the past month after a whistleblower, a Dr. Foote from the Phoenix VA Hospital, disclosed that 40 veterans have died waiting to be seen by a doctor. It is not clear at this point in time if some or all of those men died as a direct result of the delay in their care. However, many of these patients were waiting 6 to 9 months to see a primary care doctor, even after some had been to the emergency room for life-threatening medical conditions.… Read the rest

Over the past several months, I’ve been silent on the subject of ObamaCare. But as the controversy has grown, I’ve received numerous requests for an update on this law. In this piece I will go beyond outlining the problems and will explain what is at the heart of the law, why the American people were deceived, and why this law will not survive.

Since October of 2013 when ObamaCare was launched, we have witnessed one disaster after another.… Read the rest

For those of you who have read my previous blogs, you are familiar with my stance on vitamins, supplements, and “alternative medicine.” Though this topic is an entertaining example of human folly, taking untested supplements carries some real risks. Unlike the act of believing in Santa Claus, believing in untested substances is far from harmless. When you go down this path you are ingesting compounds that quite literally alter your body chemistry.

Speaking of Santa Claus and alternative medicine, for those of you who are new to my philosophy, I direct you to a short video in which I went toe-to-toe in a televised debate with Santa himself – none other than Dr.… Read the rest

For those of us who grew up in the Midwest, this was a question that virtually all children heard from their mothers at one time or another. Seemingly rhetorical, the question was meant to convey the message that there must be something seriously wrong with any young boy who would put his sister’s Barbie doll in the garbage disposal and then flip the switch. Of course, young boys exhibit such inexplicable behavior on a regular basis.… Read the rest

Cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins – medications such as Zocor, Crestor, Lipitor, and Pravachol – have been getting their share of bad publicity. Recent press reports have shown possible links between the use of statin drugs and the development of dementia and diabetes. If this were not enough, a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology has shown that the drug Zocor may actually impair the development of aerobic fitness associated with exercise.… Read the rest

The United States Constitution was printed on 6 pages of paper. You can carry a small copy in your pocket and nobody will even know. By contrast, the IRS Tax Code is now 73,954 pages long. The Tax Code is so complex and fraught with pitfalls that I do not even attempt to do my own taxes. As the latest IRS scandal unfolds regarding the targeting of specific Americans for their political beliefs, it is that little Constitution that will be used to defend against the powerful IRS bureaucracy.… Read the rest